A scoping review and expert consensus on digital determinants of health

Robin van Kessel ¹, Laure-Elise Seghers ¹, Michael Anderson ¹, Nienke M Schutte ², Giovanni Monti ¹, Madeleine Haig ¹, Jelena Schmidt ³, George Wharton ¹, Andres Roman-Urrestarazu ⁴, Blanca Larrain ⁴, Yoann Sapanel ⁵, Louisa Stüwe ⁶, Agathe Bourbonneux ⁶, Junghee Yoon ⁷, Mangyeong Lee ⁷, Ivana Paccoud ⁸, Liyousew Borga ⁸, Njide Ndili ⁹, Eric Sutherland ¹⁰, Marelize Görgens ¹¹, Eva Weicken ¹², Megan Coder ¹³, Heimar de Fatima Marin ¹⁴, Elena Val ¹⁵, Maria Cristina Profili ¹⁵, Monika Kosinska ¹⁶, Christine Elisabeth Browne ¹⁷, Alvin Marcelo ¹⁸, Smisha Agarwal ¹⁹, Monique F Mrazek ²⁰, Hani Eskandar ²¹, Roman Chestnov ²¹, Marina Smelyanskaya ²², Karin Källander ²³, Stefan Buttigieg ²⁴, Kirthi Ramesh ²⁵, Louise Holly ²⁶, Andrzej Rys ²⁷, Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat ^1 2, Jerome de Barros ^1 3, Yuri Quintana ^1 4, Antonio Spina ^1 5, Adnan A Hyder ^1 6, Alain Labrique ^1 7, Maged N Kamel Boulos ^1 8, Wen Chen ^1 9, Anurag Agrawal ^1 10, Juhee Cho ⁷, Jochen Klucken ⁸, Barbara Prainsack ^1 11, Ran Balicer ^1 12, Ilona Kickbusch ²⁶, David Novillo-Ortiz ^1 2, Elias Mossialos ¹

Affiliations Expand

• PMID: 39882497
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• PMCID: PMC11774227
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• DOI: 10.2471/BLT.24.292057

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Abstract 

in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian

Objective: To map how social, commercial, political and digital determinants of health have changed or emerged during the recent digital transformation of society and to identify priority areas for policy action.

Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase and Web of Science on 24 September 2023, to identify eligible reviews published in 2018 and later. To ensure we included the most recent literature, we supplemented our review with non-systematic searches in PubMed® and Google Scholar, along with records identified by subject matter experts. Using thematic analysis, we clustered the extracted data into five societal domains affected by digitalization. The clustering also informed a novel framework, which the authors and contributors reviewed for comprehensiveness and accuracy. Using a two-round consensus process, we rated the identified determinants into high, moderate and low urgency for policy actions.

Findings: We identified 13 804 records, of which 204 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 127 health determinants were found to have emerged or changed during the digital transformation of society (37 digital, 33 social, 33 commercial and economic and 24 political determinants). Of these, 30 determinants (23.6%) were considered particularly urgent for policy action.

Conclusion: This review offers a comprehensive overview of health determinants across digital, social, commercial and economic, and political domains, highlighting how policy decisions, individual behaviours and broader factors influence health by digitalization. The findings deepen our understanding of how health outcomes manifest within a digital ecosystem and inform strategies for addressing the complex and evolving networks of health determinants.

(c) 2025 The authors; licensee World Health Organization.